AUTOWAR25 No. 16P · Afternoon Edition
China says its GJ-21 stealth attack drone has made its first takeoff and landing on the Type 076 amphibious assault ship Sichuan, and Ukraine opened grant contests for home-built air-to-air missiles and radars to stop spending costly interceptors on cheap drones. The Navy's SSN(X) program office wants industry to use "Super Intelligence" to lay out its next attack submarine, and CENTCOM called Iran's claim to have destroyed a U.S. sea drone in Hormuz false. Also today: General Atomics' hybrid-electric NextGen flying wing, France's drone-combat units, and new CSIS and Modern War Institute analysis on drone defense and infantry drone integration.
1. China's GJ-21 stealth attack drone makes its first takeoff and landing on the Type 076 amphibious assault ship Sichuan
China's Ministry of National Defense says the GJ-21, the PLA's first ship-borne stealth reconnaissance-and-strike drone, recently completed its first takeoff and landing aboard the Sichuan (Hull 51), showing the navy can now fly fixed-wing stealth drones from large ships.
- The Sichuan, launched Dec. 27, 2024, has electromagnetic catapults, arresting gear and an automatic landing-guidance system, Xinhua reports.
- The 40,000-plus-ton ship has a full-length flight deck and is built to carry fixed-wing drones, helicopters and amphibious equipment.
- State broadcaster CCTV said the ship ran back-to-back sea trials late this month but didn't give a location, the South China Morning Post reports.
- Aviation Week calls it the first known operation of a fixed-wing, jet-powered uncrewed combat aircraft from the Type 076.
2. Ukraine opens Brave1 grant contests for home-built air-to-air missiles and radars to stop spending costly interceptors on cheap drones
Defense Minister Yevhenii Khmara says the Defense Ministry, the Ministry of Digital Transformation and the Brave1 cluster are launching grant competitions for Ukrainian air-to-air missiles and radars, with a contest for turbojet engines to follow, Euromaidan Press reports.
- "We need asymmetric effect. We need technologies that change the rules of the game in our favor," Khmara told manufacturers.
- The ministry wants domestic navigation systems, stronger electronic warfare and radars that can pick out low-signature targets, at a cost that allows mass production.
- The push comes as Russia leans harder on faster, jet-powered drones that strain Ukraine's cheapest layer of air defense.
- Khmara also asked industry for new ways to counter Russia's guided glide bombs.
Sources: mod.gov.ua (Ukrainian) · Euromaidan Press3. The Navy's SSN(X) program office wants industry to use "Super Intelligence" to design the next attack submarine's internal layout
A NAVSEA pre-solicitation posted Oct. 30 says the SSN(X) program office (PMS 351) will soon seek competing concepts that "leverage Super Intelligence" to design the submarine's system arrangement within a hydrostatically balanced whole-ship design.
- The work will run as an other-transaction prototype agreement, and the formal Area of Interest notice could come as early as next week.
- Expressions of interest are due by Nov. 6, and companies must say whether they are traditional or non-traditional defense contractors.
- The arrangement decides where the reactor, propulsion, weapons, sensors and crew spaces sit, which drives the hull's size, weight and balance, Defence Blog explains.
- SSN(X) is the planned successor to the Virginia class; the Navy has pushed the first boat to fiscal 2040.
4. Kim Jong Un opens North Korea's first drone-only exhibition and calls for "absolute superiority" in drones and AI-based weapons
North Korea's state news agency KCNA says Kim attended the "Unmanned Aeronautical Technology Development-2026" exhibition on Oct. 29 and called for putting unmanned weapon systems "on a high-level AI basis."
- More than 30 drone types were on show, including a stingray-shaped stealth drone never displayed before, South Korea's Yonhap reports.
- Tactical suicide drones, tactical cruise missiles, multipurpose drones and a 600 mm rocket launcher battalion took part in a firepower drill against targets built to look like South Korean guard posts and K9 howitzers, Defence Blog reports.
- KCNA photos show a loitering munition destroying a mock U.S. M1 Abrams; it closely resembles Israel's UVision Hero-400, Defence Blog's Dylan Malyasov writes.
- Hundreds of FPV attack drones were displayed on shelves, Yonhap reports.
5. The FCC sets a Nov. 19 vote on "Unleashing American Drone Dominance," adding 450 MHz drone control links and 24 GHz drone-detection radar
On the day it opened 800 MHz cellular spectrum to drones, the FCC released a 97-page draft order for its Nov. 19 meeting that rewrites rules for the 450 MHz, 24.45–24.65 GHz and 849–851/894–896 MHz bands for drones, counter-drone systems and aviation broadband.
- Part of the 450 MHz band would carry drone command-and-control links under one nationwide license held by AURA Network Systems, the band's only licensee, Drone Authority reports.
- Ground-based radars could use 24.45–24.65 GHz to detect drones at federal sites, stadiums, prisons, the border and critical infrastructure; Echodyne and MatrixSpace have so far run them only under waivers.
- The radar change gives no one the legal power to take a drone down, and the draft can still change before the vote.
- The same meeting takes up radio jamming of contraband phones in prisons.
6. CENTCOM calls Iran's claim that it destroyed a U.S. sea drone in the Strait of Hormuz "false" and says a squadron of advanced sea drones is on patrol
U.S. Central Command says all U.S. military unmanned surface vessels in the Middle East are accounted for, "including a squadron of advanced sea drones on patrol in the Strait of Hormuz supporting CENTCOM's defensive layer."
- Iran's navy said Friday it struck and destroyed an "enemy" remotely controlled vessel in the eastern Strait of Hormuz, without naming its operator, Iran International and Anadolu report.
- Iran's navy also said two tankers hit mines and caught fire in areas it calls restricted; CENTCOM commander Adm. Brad Cooper says the main shipping lanes are clear of Iranian mines.
- Earlier this week CENTCOM also called false an IRGC claim to have captured a U.S. MQM-170 target drone intact.
7. Army combat engineers at Fort Hood test drones and robots from five vendors for the XM123 Autonomous Breaching System
At an Oct. 29 event called Touch Point 5, soldiers from the 1st Cavalry Division's 8th Engineer Battalion examined industry approaches to the XM123, which is meant to find and clear mines and other explosive hazards from a distance, Fort Hood Public Affairs says.
- Approaches include drones and sensors to find hazards, software to recognize suspicious objects and uncrewed equipment to neutralize them.
- One drone drops an explosive payload on a mine and another drops a smaller drone to set it off, FOX 44 reports.
- "The user sets up an autonomous mission back at the base... and the bird flies out and does the mission with the soldier overwatch," a vendor engineer says.
- XM123 is still in development, and soldiers and commanders stay responsible for overseeing the systems, the Army says.
Sources: Fort Hood Public Affairs · FOX 44 via AOL8. Ukraine's defense ministry says automated turrets have destroyed more than 60 aerial targets, including jet-powered Geran-5s
The Ministry of Defence of Ukraine says automated turrets developed through the Brave1 cluster since 2024 are now in Air Force service and have downed more than 60 targets under the private air defense program.
- Targets include jet-powered Banderol munitions and Geran-5 drones, the ministry says.
- The turrets also destroyed dozens of Russian drones over Kyiv in the past month.
- Private air defense lets companies protect their own staff, plants and energy sites; nearly 100 companies had joined by mid-October.
- More than 10 military units already use a Ukrainian AI-powered turret, the ministry reported separately.
9. The Army picks Lockheed Martin for its Future Interceptor, a project worth more than $1 billion, aimed at advanced missiles and jet-powered attack drones
The Army awarded Lockheed an Other Transaction agreement to prototype and test a new interceptor with better range, altitude, velocity and maneuverability than legacy systems, with the government paying about $660 million and Lockheed $423 million.
- The Army cites hypersonics, next-generation ballistic and cruise missiles and jet-powered attack drones as the threats, DefenseScoop reports.
- Lockheed has offered its new PAC-3 Edge for the program and plans to start testing it in 2027.
- The Army provides much of the U.S. military's ground-based air and missile defense.
10. Moscow's mayor says 862 drones were shot down on their way to the capital overnight, and all four Moscow airports were restricted
Mayor Sergei Sobyanin says air defenses downed 862 drones heading for Moscow between 8:30 p.m. Oct. 29 and 7:30 a.m. Oct. 30, the second mass attack on the capital in two nights, APA and bne IntelliNews report.
- Sobyanin says most were destroyed far from the city and 170 were intercepted as they approached Moscow.
- Russia's defense ministry claims 1,043 Ukrainian drones were destroyed over 19 regions overnight, including Samara, Tatarstan, Yaroslavl and Bryansk.
- Vnukovo, Domodedovo, Zhukovsky and Sheremetyevo were temporarily restricted, and St. Petersburg's Pulkovo took 27 Moscow-bound flights, Vedomosti reported.
- No damage or casualties in Moscow had been reported by Friday morning.
11. The death toll from the jet-drone strike on Dnipro's railway station rises to 15, as Russian attacks kill 27 across Ukraine in a day
Dnipropetrovsk regional governor Oleksandr Hanzha says at least 15 people were killed and 14 injured when a Russian jet-powered drone hit the platform where a train to Zaporizhzhia was waiting on Oct. 29, the Kyiv Independent and Ukrainska Pravda report.
- Russian attacks across Ukraine killed 27 people and injured 127 over the past day, local authorities say.
- Four jet-powered drones targeted Dnipro around 11 a.m. and three were shot down, Ukraine's Air Force says.
- About 350,000 people in the region were left without power after the overnight attacks, Hanzha says.
- Six of the wounded at the station are in serious condition, including an 11-year-old boy, Ukrainska Pravda reports.
Sources: Kyiv Independent · Ukrainska Pravda12. Lithuania receives its first Thales GM200 MM/C radar, which can spot enemy artillery positions and FPV drones
Lithuania's Ministry of National Defence says the multifunction radar will protect troops in the national division by detecting artillery positions and FPV drones on the battlefield.
- Depending on configuration, the radar can also support air surveillance and air-defense integration, LRT reports.
- The purchase is part of Lithuanian-Dutch cooperation and includes maintenance and future upgrades.
13. A French patrol plane spotted the Russian sea drones before they hit the Contship Jet, and Bulgaria's navy chief says it had no way to stop them
New: a French Navy Atlantique 2 patrol aircraft spotted three Russian unmanned surface vessels heading for the container ship and warned its crew before the strike off Bulgaria, Defence Blog reports, citing French and Bulgarian officials.
- Bulgarian Navy commander Rear Adm. Kiril Mihaylov says the first drone hit around noon and the third was destroyed by small-arms fire.
- The drones were moving at about 26 knots, and Bulgaria had no means to intercept them, Mihaylov says.
- All 18 crew were rescued before the Liberian-flagged ship sank about 17 nautical miles off Cape Kaliakra.
- Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has called for a global maritime truce after the attack.
Sources: Defence Blog · Militarnyi14. General Atomics is developing NextGen, a hybrid-electric flying-wing strike drone that could stay aloft more than 60 hours
General Atomics spokesman C. Mark Brinkley told The War Zone that NextGen uses "novel hybrid-electric propulsion" and will feed into one of the company's Gambit drone designs.
- The air-to-surface Gambit 6, a derivative of the FQ-42A Vengeance collaborative combat aircraft, is set for a live-fire ground-attack demonstration early next year.
- The FQ-42A's first missile live-fire is planned for later this year, along with Exercise Emerald Flag.
- All Gambit designs share a common core of landing gear, baseline avionics and other hardware to cut cost and speed development.
- Hybrid-electric propulsion can improve fuel economy and may reduce infrared and acoustic signatures, TWZ notes.
Sources: The War Zone · afrl.af.mil: XQ-67A flight15. "Open the hives": France is turning tank gunners into FPV pilots and plans about 15 drone-combat units by summer 2027
The French Army's 1er RIMa marine infantry regiment has converted a squadron into an all-drone unit, and Army chief Gen. Jacques de Montgros wants about 15 drone-combat units by summer 2027, Defense News' Rudy Ruitenberg reports.
- One French drone unit has already deployed to Romania with Mission Aigle, and a second goes to Poland next month.
- The shift moves armor crews from tank guns to first-person-view strike drones rather than adding a separate drone branch.
- France is drawing on Ukraine's experience, where drones now cause most battlefield casualties.
Sources: Defense News16. WIRED: an Accenture contractor's personal Claude coding agent ran on a Pentagon NIPRNet system for two months
- The agent appears to have sent login credentials and a map of the NIPRNet environment to a third-party website that NIST had flagged as high risk, WIRED reports.
- Sources say Accenture did not initially report the incident, though contractors must report cyber incidents within 72 hours.
- Accenture says the allegations "were thoroughly and independently investigated and found to be without merit"; the Pentagon declined to comment.
- There is no indication classified networks were reached.
Sources: WIRED · CDO Magazine17. A Ukrainian interceptor drone shoots down a Russian KUB-2E loitering munition, the first confirmed kill of its kind
Ukraine's Posipaky drone unit downed a Kalashnikov-made KUB-2E in the Zaporizhzhia sector with a General Chereshnia AIR interceptor, the National Association of Ukrainian Defense Industries says, calling it the first confirmed interception of the weapon by a frontline interceptor drone.
- Both the association and the General Chereshnia team posted onboard video of the engagement; Kyiv Post could not independently verify its time or place.
- The KUB-2E is built to hit troops, vehicles and drone-operator positions and usually works with a reconnaissance drone that finds targets.
- The basic model carries a warhead of about 3 kilograms and has a reported range of 25–40 kilometers.
Sources: Kyiv Post18. Ukraine's Lasar's Group says its own interceptor drone is already shooting down Russia's jet-powered Shaheds
The National Guard unit released combat footage of its domestically built interceptor and said it "is already shooting down jet-powered Shahed drones and will shoot down more," Defense Express reports.
- The unit has not disclosed the interceptor's speed, range, ceiling or how it guides to the target.
- Lasar's Group says it is working with Ukrainian manufacturers on more ways to intercept jet-powered drones.
- Jet Shaheds fly much faster than propeller models, which shortens the time to detect, track and engage them.
Sources: Defense Express19. Ukraine's 3rd Assault Brigade destroys a Russian Mi-8 with two U.S.-made Hornet attack drones after the helicopter outran the first one
A drone crew from the brigade's unmanned systems battalion spotted the helicopter during a raid on Russian supply lines in Luhansk, but it was faster than the Hornet and pulled away, so the crew struck it near the fuel tanks after it landed, Defence Blog reports.
- "The second Hornet successfully finished off the target," the brigade said; Russia has not commented.
- The Hornet is a fixed-wing one-way attack drone built by U.S.-based Perennial Autonomy.
- Ukraine's 1st Azov Corps has flown the Hornet more than 50 km past the front, and Ukraine tested launching one from an aerostat at about 8 km altitude in May.
Sources: Defence Blog20. Ukrainian drones set Rosneft's Novokuybyshevsk refinery on fire, a day after the WSJ reported Kyiv had paused refinery strikes under U.S. pressure
Drones hit the Novokuybyshevsk Oil Refinery in Russia's Samara region on the morning of Oct. 30, sparking a fire, Militarnyi and Euronews report; Ukrainian drone maker Fire Point mocked the strike on Telegram.
- The Wall Street Journal reported Oct. 29 that Ukraine had paused refinery strikes after pressure from the U.S.; the Kyiv Post calls this the first reported refinery attack in nearly two weeks.
- The refinery processes about 8.8 million tonnes of crude a year and makes jet fuel for Russia's Aerospace Forces, the Kyiv Post reports.
- Drones also hit a Bryansk factory that supplies food rations to Russia's armed forces.
- Samara's governor reported no casualties, Politico reports.
21. Drone strikes on a camp for displaced people in Ethiopia's Amhara region kill at least 14, including children
Several drone strikes hit a camp for displaced people in Amhara's South Wollo zone on Oct. 29, killing at least 14 people including children and pregnant women, witnesses told AFP; Anadolu puts the toll at 16 dead and 22 injured.
- "Four drone strikes were carried out one after another," a witness told AFP.
- The camp houses more than 1,800 displaced people, many of whom fled violence in the Oromia region, Anadolu reports.
- Neither report says who carried out the strikes.
Sources: AFP via Citizen Digital · Anadolu22. The Army is training AI to spot camouflaged troops in drone video, and designing camouflage to fool it
Stars and Stripes' John Vandiver reports, citing an Army statement, that aided-target-recognition software trained on large image sets now flags possible targets in live drone footage for soldiers to check.
- The Army recently tested the software with a unit, and a flight test with groups of drones is planned at Yuma Proving Ground.
- In one study with the Army Research Laboratory, AI-generated camouflage cut a computer's vehicle-detection accuracy from 99.5% to 38.2%.
- Effective camouflage should deceive machine detectors and still look convincing to people, the study says.
23. "Ground is hard": autonomous ground vehicles are overcoming terrain problems to take on first contact, breaching and resupply
Stars and Stripes' Corey Dickstein reports that robots like Overland AI's new IBEX are getting closer to running missions ahead of Army units with little human input.
- Overland AI CEO Byron Boots says ground robots could make first contact with the enemy, breach obstacles, jam signals or haul gear.
- "The ground is the most important domain," Boots says, because that is where troops live and take and hold territory.
- Overland AI unveiled the IBEX at the AUSA convention this month and has won some $90 million in Pentagon contracts.
Sources: Stars and Stripes24. "What Latin America Can Teach the United States about Drone Defense": CSIS counts about 480 weaponized drone attacks by armed groups in the region
In an Oct. 29 CSIS Americas Program commentary, Henry Ziemer cites ACLED data showing about 480 weaponized drone attacks in Latin America from January 2025 to August 2026, concentrated in Mexico and Colombia.
- Colombia confirmed its first fiber-optic drone attack in February, Mexico seized 15 or more fiber-optic spools this month, and cartels such as CJNG are recruiting Ukraine drone veterans, Ziemer writes.
- Brazil's Comando Vermelho has used drones against police, and drones smuggle contraband into Ecuador's prisons.
- Colombia is building a $1.68 billion "drone shield" and has seen swarm tactics.
- He urges closer work between JIATF-401 and SOUTHCOM's Joint Task Force Western Hemisphere, and a counter-drone "lend-lease" that trades technology and training for data.
25. "American Tercio": a Modern War Institute essay lays out how to build drone operators into every U.S. infantry platoon, company and battalion
Antonio Salinas argues in an Oct. 30 Modern War Institute essay that infantry should integrate drones rather than be replaced by them, the way Spain's tercio blended pikes and firearms, as drones cause an estimated 70–80% of casualties in Ukraine.
- He would cross-train one fire team in each platoon's third rifle squad as drone operators.
- Their work would center on four jobs: direct attack, command and control, observation and calls for fire, and counter-drone security.
- Company headquarters would add drones and four operators, and each battalion a ten-operator drone section.
- He ties the design to an island-chain fight against China and to deterrence by denial.
Sources: Modern War Institute · MWI editor on X
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How AUTOWAR25 ranks
Every edition, we scan official channels, news, industry, research, and social posts for the 25 most important developments in autonomous warfare: drones, counter-drone systems, uncrewed vessels and vehicles, and military AI.
Stories rank by source first:
- Official means governments, militaries, and their leaders speaking on the record.
- Premium/Press means established news outlets.
- Industry/Research means companies, think tanks, and published research.
- Social means notable posts from analysts, reporters, and practitioners.
Within each group, newer stories rank higher and engagement breaks ties. A company press release stays out of the top 10 until someone else reports on it. Ongoing marks a developing story, and Carryover marks one from a previous edition that's still moving. Claims from warring parties are labeled as claims, and anything we couldn't independently confirm is marked unverified.
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